Original hospital building permits are missing

VALPARAISO | Porter CountyPlan Commission Executive Director Robert Thompson said his office is unable to locate the original permits issued for the construction of Porter Regional Hospital and the nearby medical office building.

He declined comment, cited the ongoing FBI investigation into county government. His office hadreleased at least two different replacement versions of the permit for the medical office building, each with a different owners listed.

The earlier of the two versions, issued Jan. 31, 2012, lists the owner of the building as Porter Hospital.A copy provided by the office last week lists the owner as TST Porter. Both copies have the same permit number and issue date of Sept. 27, 2011, but the copy identifying TST as owners adds a completion date of Sept. 4, 2012.

The address listed on the latter permit for TST matches that of The Sanders Trust, a realty firm in Birmingham, Ala., identified recently by Porter County Councilman Jim Biggs, R-1st, as the owner of the building.

He and Council President Dan Whitten, D-at large, have said they believe a 10-year tax abatement granted by the County Council in 2009 should not be extended to the medical office building because it is not owned by hospital.

The building permit for the medical offices and the nearby hospital were the focus of recent by the FBI, Thompson previously said. Agents showed up March 7 and March 10 seeking copies of the building permits in question, he said.

Hospital officials declined comment. Porter County Assessor Jon Snyder also declined comment.

While there has been a lot of attention on the hospital not owning the medical office building, that information should have come as no revelation to county officials.

Jonathan Nalli, who stepped down recently as chief executive officer at Porter Health Care System, told the County Council when asked in July 2011 he did not consider the office building as part of the tax abatement granted to the hospital.

"That's actually not a project of Porter Health System," he said at the time, according to the meeting minutes. "We are leasing the grounds to a development company that we're working closely with for that project."

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Original hospital building permits are missing